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Essentially, elections are the backbone of democracy, giving citizens a direct way to communicate their political preferences. But fraud manipulation and misinformation undermine election integrity. The rise of fake candidatures has become one of the most worrying kinds of election fraud in the modern age.
Misrepresenting the purposes of candidacy and subsequent formation of alternative fraud political parties leads to fake candidatures of the public confidence in the electoral process, which distorts the result and ultimately erodes trust in democratic institutions.
However, this has prompted many to look to blockchain technology to secure elections against this and third-party interference. Because of its decentralised nature, immutability, and transparency, blockchain has the potential to have a major impact on how we vote.
Blockchain can help eliminate fake candidatures, enhance voter trust, and promote fairer elections by providing an incorruptible record of electoral processes.
In this article, we will discuss how authentic candidatures can be achieved through blockchain technology, enhancing voters’ trust by focusing on the correct electoral systems.
The problem of fake candidatures
Fake candidatures can look different and lead to corruption in elections. These fraudulent candidates might include:
1. Spoilers: Some candidates are frauds that have no intent of winning but run to steal votes from other real candidates and skew the election.
2. Impersonators: People who write candidates with similar names or profiles to real candidates to make people vote for the wrong candidate.
3. Non-Serious Candidates: Some people will register to be candidates without the intention of campaigning or even serving in office. Wasting resources and confusing voters, these candidates may unnecessarily confuse voters ahead of elections.
4. Fraudulent Fundraising: Fake candidates ready to take up campaign money they raised under pretences might sell themselves upon popularity they don’t possess.
There are several problems with fake candidacies. Elections not only skew results but also erode voters’ trust in the election system.
Manipulated processes or voters feel their vote does not matter, which can result in apathy and low participation rates. Fraudulent candidatures as well can spread misinformation campaigns that stack the true issues and undermine the calibre of political talk.
As the number of individual candidates has grown fivefold in the last decade, election authorities must create a more robust system to verify the candidates and allow only qualified people to run for office. However, blockchain technology seems to be a suitable solution to this problem.
Blockchain Technology: A Transparent and Secure Solution
A blockchain is a digital ledger system of recording transactions that takes place across a distributed network of computers. After data is recorded in the blockchain, it is encrypted and immutable and has near-impossible chances of change or deletion.
While cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have historically been the primary link to this system, it has applications much further divorced from finance. The characteristics of blockchain, such as transparency, security, decentralisation, and immutability, appeal specifically to elections.
Key Features of Blockchain:
1. Transparency: Information stored on a blockchain network is available and verifiable to every participant in that blockchain network. That transparency prevents fraud, such as fake candidatures, because it’s impossible that nobody would realise there were no candidates for an election.
2. Immutability: Once recorded in a blockchain, data can’t be changed. This also means that if the registration of a candidate is validated, he can’t tamper with or delete it, and hence a fraudulent vote would appear on the ballot.
3. Decentralisation: Blockchain works on a peer-to-peer network, meaning that it doesn’t have an authority. That means fake candidatures or an individual or entity trying to manipulate the process is more difficult because the broad network has to go along with it.
4. Security: Cryptographic techniques, such as tamper-resistant and non-hackable, are used to secure the data in blockchain. The provision of this feature provides a high level of protection of sensitive electoral data, including candidate registration and other voting records.
5. Smart Contracts: Blockchain can contain smart contracts, self-executing contracts where the terms of the agreement are written directly into code. These contracts can be used to automate certain parts of the election process, like verifying candidates to ensure only those who are eligible can be put forward for elections.
While considering these, blockchain technology provides a very good way of ensuring election integrity by providing a transparent, secure, and unchangeable record of candidates along with their qualifications. We take a closer look below at how blockchain can particularly help remove fake candidatures and increase voter trust.
How Blockchain Eliminates Fake Candidatures
1. Candidate registration verification
Creating a secure, transparent, and verifiable process for candidates. Registration is one of the main ways blockchain can end fake candidacies. Candidate verification is currently performed manually or via centralised databases subject to human error or manipulation. But blockchain can automate this on its own, making it more efficient and more reliable.
- Digital Identity Verification: Through blockchain, candidates can register using secure digital identities, which could come in the form of government-issued IDs, biometric data, or verified credentials. On the blockchain, digital identities can be stored securely, and there’s not much scope for fraudulent candidates to show up without proper documentation.
- Immutable Candidate Records: With the candidate’s information recorded on the blockchain, it’s an immutable ledger. That eliminates the potential for a false candidate to enter the race and not be shown up for his registration or deleted.
- Public Access and Verification: Transparency in the blockchain is accomplished by permitting the public to examine candidate information. In real-time, the campaign can boast of voter verification, election monitors, and other stakeholders confirming the legitimacy of the candidates. Thus assuring that on the ballot only those declared verified and qualified appear.
2. Compliance with Election Rules: Automation
There are minimum age requirements or even criteria regarding residency, or you need a certain number of signatures, for example. It is possible to use blockchain to automate and verify these requirements using smart contracts.
- Automated Validation: Such a candidate’s eligibility can be automatically verified by using smart contracts. To illustrate, we can use blockchain-stored data so we can check a candidate’s age and residency status and reject their candidacy automatically if they don’t even meet the legal criteria.
3. Preventing Spoiler Candidates
Many elections have a problem with spoiler candidates or people who run to contribute to splitting the vote in hopes of benefitting another candidate. To solve this problem, the blockchain election process can make the process more transparent, and there will be a clear, tamper-proof record of each candidate’s intent and background.
- Election Monitoring: With blockchain, however, every stage in the election can be publicly watched. Running purely to spoil the election is just not realistic, and if one is suspected of just doing that, then their activities can be tracked, and independent observers can easily highlight how little of a candidate they are.
- Transparent Fundraising and Spending: Blockchain can also monitor who is donating to and spending money on campaign efforts. If in the course of soliciting donations, a candidate is playing fast and loose, their financial activity can be tracked and revealed.
4. Voter Confidence and Trust
Any election needs voter trust to be legitimate. The more voters feel the process is fair and transparent. More likely they are to participate and to have accepted the results. A blockchain would enormously improve voter confidence by offering a clear and tamper-proof record of the election.
- Real-Time Verification: The ability to verify candidate information and prevent outsiders from running for office is one of the main reasons that blockchain powers them. Blockchain creates accountability by considering voters independently and checking the accuracy of candidate data.
- Decentralised Oversight: Election data handled by a decentralised network on the blockchain cannot be concentrated in one authority because it is run on a decentralised network. This may minimise the chances of being corrupted or manipulated by the electoral system.
- Auditability and Transparency: Votlck is secured by blockchain, which guarantees that every vote is correctly stored and accessible for audit.
5. Managing the Risk of Misinformation
Modernity has brought along its youthfulness today in the field of yesterday’s information; misinformation spreads quickly, and candidatures are promoted through dissemination on social media and other media platforms. Yet blockchain is capable of fixing this by generating a public, auditable, undeniable record of candidate information.
- Fact-Checking and Verification: On the blockchain, voters and journalists can verify the supposed candidates are legitimate in real time. If a fake candidate does come forward or misinformation around a candidate trickles into view, blockchain can be used to offer an official verifiable record to counter such false claims.
- Combating Fake Accounts and Bots: With blockchain’s transparency capabilities, spot and disallow phrases that could be artificial social media accounts or bots used to enhance bogus candidacies. Whenever an election authority finds a fake account or a message of a misinformation campaign, they can change the social media profile for a verified blockchain identity.
How Blockchain is being used in elections across the Real World
There are already several governments and organisations experimenting with blockchain to improve the level of electoral transparency and minimise the risk of fraud. Notable examples include:
1. Estonia: Estonia is one of the first nations to have come to grips with digital governance, and they even leverage blockchain technology to protect their e-Residency program.
The country is experimenting with using blockchain to ensure secure and visible elections so automated candidate registration and vote counting can be streamlined and transparent.
2. Sierra Leone: Sierra Leone used blockchain in 2018 during the presidential elections to secure election results and make sure the final count was accurate and tamper-proof. The potential of blockchain to improve electoral integrity and trust was proved in this trial.
3. West Virginia: West Virginia had a blockchain-based overseas military voter pilot in 2018 allowing military voters from overseas to cast their secure votes through their mobile devices. This project was a success as blockchain showed the potential to increase election security and voter confidence.
Conclusion
It’s a very real threat, particularly to the integrity of elections, because if you fake a campaign, that undermines voter trust, distorts the democratic process, and impacts the vote count.
It is blockchain technology that provides a solution to this problem, offering a secure, immutable, transparent, and efficient system for candidate registration and election monitoring.
Blockchain’s automated verification, tamper-proof records, and real-time public accessibility can erase fake candidatures, improve the voter’s confidence, and safeguard the legitimacy of the electoral process.
Blockchains are finding their use in the technology of the 21st century, beginning with elections, which could become more transparent, secure, and accessible. Blockchain is not a magic wand to improve all election challenges, but it’s a major milestone in the effort to curtail election fraud and build democratic integrity.